THE CREST The Gunslinger
by Count-Hagane
Summary: Kate Aryoko and her friends thought that with the destruction of General Torreador that the Empire was dead...but 13 years later a new threat arises and Neo-Earth must once again be saved by its sworn protectors.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Are you sure Andros? Are you absolutely positive?" A mellow male voice asked, "Yeah…I saw who you were looking for, he's probably in Prism city limits by now." replied a much deeper voice. Just then a tavern door burst open, and a couple of figures stepped out towards a vehicle that looked like a jet plane with an open cockpit and had two helicopter blades on the wings. "I have to get there and help them." The mellow voice said, "You're not thinking of going alone…are you?" asked Andros in an arguing voice. "I don't have a choice Andros…either I help them or they're done for, and the second choice is not an option at all."

The figure securely fastened himself into the harness and started the engine, Andros backed away and watched as the machine started taking off, "Okay Roland…it's your loss, I just want you to know it took one of my best cartel deliverers to get that information!" Roland looked down with his gray eyes then looked ahead, pulling out a crystal pendulum. Focusing his energy into it the thing started spinning only to stop and point to his left, "I have nothing left to lose." Roland growled as he turned the vehicle in that direction and headed off that way. Behind him he saw an area of reddish-orange in the sky…a new day was about to begin on Neo-Earth, and unless he acted now…the Crest warriors wouldn't be alive to see the end of it.

MEANWHILE IN PRISM…

"Come on you two…get up, TODAY'S the DAY!" An excited Hope shouted from behind her parents' bedroom door. Kayin let out a groan, "Doesn't she know the celebration doesn't begin for another 7 hours?" he grumbled to his wife Grace.

"Probably not," replied Grace.

"HEY, don't you go to sleep, we have to be ready!" Hope nearly pulled both of them out of the bed, forcing them to get ready.

The Crest Fair, created to celebrate the defeat of the Empire and the restoration of the Crest, had grown to amazing proportions. Literally thousands of beings (Humans and Anthros…yep, it's that type of story) across Neo-Earth attended the two day celebration. Sponsored by Ambar Enterprises and held in Prism, the festival was held in the largest stadium in Prism and the doors only opened at the official start, with no one but the preparation staff knowing what was inside.

Landing outside the dome, Kayin, Grace, and Hope tried to move in the crowd, but the place was already swamped. Kayin saw some people looking at him and either whispering or pointing him out to others, "Why is everyone looking at you dad?" Hope asked. Kayin said, "I'm sure it's nothing." But he knew what they were perhaps whispering about, him slaying that creature that had rampaged the festival a while back. "Looks like you've made quite the historical legend out of yourself." Grace whispered to him, Kayin blushed a bit.

"How are we going to find anybody in this crowd?" Hope asked, straining to see through it. "Ask…and you shall receive." A voice behind them said, "So how are you three doing these days?"

"Carmesi!" Grace shouted out, wrapping her in a hug. "Uhh…it's nice to see you too." Replied Carmesi nervously. The two girls exchanged hellos while Kayin and Howl just nodded at each other, Howl looked down and saw Kayin had one of his swords with him. "Umm…why are you still carrying that around?" Howl asked.

"Come on Howl…don't tell me you don't sense it too?" Kayin asked. Then turned his attention eastward, Howl didn't admit it but he did sense it…an immense power in the east, getting closer with every minute. Which is why he'd hid a dagger in his left boot, just in case it proved to be hostile.

"So where's Vixy?" Kayin asked, "She met up with Nearie, they went ahead without us. Kate and Bengala are here too with Shin. Saw Pulsar a few minutes ago…but that's all."

"Sometimes I wish we were all here…you know, the whole group." Kayin said with a shallow sigh. "I know…but we all do our own thing, I spoke with Minos. He said he'd felt something as well, but it faded away before he could tell what it was." Howl told him.

"I'm going to find the others." Announced Hope, and with that the little antelope/coyote mix breed made her way through the crowd.

Once they were all inside they met up with Ambar and Pulsar, they all exchanged their hellos, "Well Ambar…this looks like a better turn out than last time." Commented Carmesi, "Yeah…but I wonder how long this type of quiet will last." Ambar replied, looking around.

"What do you mean by that?!" Asked a voice behind them, They all looked to see Kate standing behind them, Kayin also saw that Kate had brought her kitana with her. "You've sensed it too…haven't you?" Kayin asked, Kate nodded, "Bengala too, he's brought his weapon along as well."

"You bunch aren't the only ones, I've kept in touch with Geeku and Xeanica…Geeku said that she was taking a walk through her native rain forests when she saw somebody, he was wearing clothes too heavy to be from around her parts…but that's not the weird part, the weird part is he had this black satin pouch around his neck, she saw the person pour out several of these little ball bearings. Then the person laid his hand out flat and flicked them off one by one, but instead of falling to the ground they zipped off and hit the trees…almost like they were bullets. Xeanica had almost a similar story, said she was resting on a deserted beach in the south when she saw this guy in a clear plastic rain poncho land by a tide pool, she saw the guy put his right arm out over it, then prick his finger…and then it got interesting, she said the water in the tide pool became a water made creature. She said she watch him give it some commands before dispelling it back into the tide pool again and watch him leave." said Ambar.

"You think this might be another attempt by the Empire don't you?" asked Kayin.

"At this point and time I can't tell…but it's a probability." Ambar replied.

Pulsar looked around and saw somebody ushering him to come over, "You guys go on…I've got to see somebody." he said, and with that he left them.

Meanwhile from the east Roland was darting across the skies in that flying contraption of his ( Author's Note: If you can, use the Age of Emipires II: The Age of Kings Start Menu theme for the right mood) , he looked ahead and saw the top of Ambar Tower…which told him he was nearing Prism. He took a thermal scan and saw that most of it was in an arena on the north side of the city, he quickly set the autopilot to first go to the arena…then go on and land on Ambar Tower.

Back at the arena Kayin looked at all the festivities, trying to put what happened before Hope was born in the back of his memories. He suddenly looked eastward again and sensed that the power was much closer now, suddenly he saw Pulsar looking around as if searching for something, "If your looking for your wife…she's near the refreshments area with Kate and Nearie!" he called out to him, Pulsar responded with an 'O.K' gesture.

Pulsar found them, and started to make his way towards them. Nearie waved him over, "So, the gangs all here?" Pulsar asked smiling, there was something in that smile that Nearie didn't like. "Everyone who could show up." Kate replied.

"That's good…now the _real _fun begins." Pulsar said, suddenly Pulsar turned around and threw an energy blast at one area of the stadium, this was followed by two similar blasts thrown in the opposite direction of each other.

"Pulsar…what in the name of Sam Hill do you thin—!?" Ambar started to say, "Oh Ambar…didn't you know I'd always betray you and the others? Didn't you think that for one second the Empire's hold on me could truly be broken? Now excuse me while I have some fun of my own!" Pulsar interrupted, with that he flew up until he was in the dead center of the stadium, and then started throwing energy blasts everywhere. While everybody Human and Anthro alike ran from Pulsar's rage, Howl, Carmesi, Bengala, Grace, and the others there ran to Ambar, Kate, and Nearie. Kayin looked up at Pulsar who seemed to be enjoying this a bit too much for his taste, "Has Pulsar completely lost it!" he asked.

"Looks like it." Vixy replied.

As Roland neared the stadium he saw smoke rising out of it, "_Looks like I'm late to the party again_…_well as long as I get to crash it_." Roland thought to himself, he then undid the harness and as soon as he was over the stadium he jumped out and made his dive towards the ground.

Shin was the first to spot it, "Hey guys…what's that falling out of the sky?" They all looked up and saw a person falling from the sky, Ambar was about to use her Telekenisis to try and slow the guy down, but Howl stopped her and said, "Wait…can't you sense that?!"

"I can…it's that same power I sensed earlier, it's coming from him, whoever he is." said Howl.

They watched as the person did a back flip and then slowed his own decent, floating only a few inches from the ground and then finally landing, he was a Fox-Anthro with a light-grayish/burgundy trench coat on, he wore a purple shirt and faded blue jeans. His hair was a rich maroon-like color and so long in back that he had it in three pony tails, his gray eyes stared up at Pulsar, and Pulsar looked back down at him and with a groan said, "Oh cripes, not _you_ again!"

"Yes…me, now we can do this the easy way," Then the person opened his trench coat a bit more, revealing two rather large holsters, and from those holsters he pulled out two large pistols from them, "or we can do this the hard way."

Suddenly Kate got in the way of his line of fire and said, "I won't let you kill Pulsar!"

"No, it's not!" the person replied back.

"Are you calling my mom a _liar_!" Argued Shin, who'd slowly made his way to his mother's side. "I'm just saying he's not who you think he is!" responded the person, who now sounded like he was getting angry.

Suddenly Pulsar attacked both Kate and Shin from behind, the stranger then took the gun in his left hand and squeezed the trigger, the report was so loud they didn't even hear Pulsar cry out in pain as the bullet entered his right thigh. Pulsar fell to the ground, and the figure looked up, straight up into the barrel of the gun in strangers other hand. "Now…tell me where the _real_ Pulsar is and I'll make your co muffins less excruciating."

Pulsar looked up into the persons eyes and with a sigh said, "I tied him up and locked him in a janitor closet."

"That's better," the stranger said, he then looked at Hope and said, "You, can you check the janitor closets in the stadium." Hope nodded and took off, "Aren't you going to check for yourself?" 'Pulsar' asked, the stranger turned his gaze back to him and with a slight smile on his face, "If you're lying…this bullet is going in your skull."

Ten minutes later Hope returned with a rather dazed Pulsar, he looked and pointed at himself saying, "That's the guy who knocked me out…he pretended to want an autograph, then when I look at him his face suddenly changed into mine."

'Pulsar' shot a quick smile and said, "Yep…and the worst part is you have _no_ idea what's to come in the next several months! You'll all bear witness to glory of our return, you thought just because you killed Torreador you stopped us? Well think again kids because it's our time now." He then charged at them powering up for an attack, the stranger saw this and started powering up himself, cupping his hands together a baseball sized orb of golden energy formed in them. With an upscale scream the stranger yelled out: "_RAIL…WAY…_" Suddenly all of them felt the energy he gave off, Carmesi nearly fainted it was so intense, "**BOMB!!!**" and with that he released the orb from there it expanded to three times it's original diameter and struck 'Pulsar' from behind, they all watched as he flew past them screaming as he hit and went through the wall to the main concourse, then went through that wall and passed two rows of parking spaces before finally landing dead as a doornail.

The stranger then stood there for a few moments, then walked until he was standing right next to 'Pulsar'…only he didn't look like Pulsar anymore, he was a Bear Anthro with shaggy blond hair. Carmesi came up behind him, "That was incredible…I mean the power you had and everything, how did you do that?"

He looked up at her and said, "Long story…you'd probably be put to sleep just hearing it."

Shin and Vixy were the next to appear, with Kate following from behind. Shin looked down at the body, "Is he?" the stranger nodded, "And I knew him too…his name was Lionel, has three sisters and a brother…he was the baby of that family, it's going to pain me to tell his family what happened to him."

Shin was nearing to touch it, but Kate stopped him, she then looked at the stranger and said, "Oh…how unlike me, my name is Kate Aryoko, the two standing next to you are Carmesi and her daughter Vixy, and this here is my son Shin."

The stranger stood up and said, "Roland Victoire…nice to meet you, I'm supposing you and Carmesi are two of the twelve the make up the Crest?"

"How'd you know that?" asked Carmesi, Roland looked at her, "Part of the story I'd rather not get into…I'm going to need to see the others…have them all meet at Ambar Tower, Kayin too…I think what I have to say may interest him as well as shock you all."

"You don't think we can trust this guy…do you?" Asked Kate, Carmesi shrugged.

"I trust him," Vixy added in, "we should probably tell Mrs. Ambar to prepare the tower for multiple guests…shouldn't we."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: An Old Enemy…A New Threat

Roland looked at the city from the top of the stadium, "_Did I do the right thing,_" Roland thought to himself, "_can I give them time to prepare? So many questions…and I only have a handful of the answers I need, perhaps if I tell them they'll provide the rest_."

Roland then reached around his neck and pulled out a gold necklace with green gems in it, he clasped it in his grasp as if looking for some kind of strength inside. He then sensed it; all twelve of the Crest had been gathered at Ambar Tower. "Well let's get this production on the road."

As Roland neared the room he could hear the voices of the other Crests saying stuff like 'I hope this Roland shows up soon.' or 'what does this guy have to tell us that's so important?!'

"_They've a right to doubt me…but perhaps I can sway their opinions a bit. Oh I _do _hope they'll believe me_." Roland thought as he opened the door. He walked in and saw them look at him as he entered, Ambar was the first to speak, "Well we're all here…so out with it."

With a deep sigh Roland said, "Okay…but you're not going to believe me, here goes nothing……the Empire is back."

"Impossible," Zephy blurted out, "Kayin and the others got rid of the last reminisce of them, how could they have survived this long!?"

"Just listen okay…I understand your doubt, I was surprised myself. But Kayin's little tact only crippled the Empire, it's had time to mend its losses, it's troops have more then multiplied into the ten thousands range," Then Roland shot a confident (if not sly) smile, "but there's some good news in all of this…Kayin's little tact caused a backward vacuum in the Empires' structure…it's literally at war with itself."

"Yeah…so what's the big deal, we've beaten the Empire before…we can take them again." said Pulsar.

Roland shook his head, "After what I tell you…you may doubt that, now there are five factions in this whole war, but the strongest are the τ (Tau) Faction, the α (Alpha) Faction, and the ω (Omega) Faction, and out of those three it's the Omega Faction you should all be worried about."

"And why's that?" Asked Sem Deth.

Roland's face suddenly went completely dark and serious, even the air around him seemed to broadcast some powerful omen, "Because they have Crest Warriors of their own."

"That's not possible…there are only twelve Crests and we're them!" Ambar argued. "Uhh…that's not exactly true Ambar." Zephy spoke out, a nervous laugh in her voice, "What…Zephy don't tell me you're buying into this, you know as well as the rest of us there are only 12 Crests…what he's saying is a damn lie!" Howl argued.

Zephy looked at Roland nervously, Roland replied with a nod and said, "I think it's time they knew."

"If you say so," Zephy commented with a heavy sigh, she turned to the others and began, "Well Ambar while you're right about there being 12 Crests…it doesn't fall into a proper category, you see there are three categories of Crests. There are the main Crests…which you all possess, then there's another category known as the Fallen Crests. A category to which four Crests of incredible power were bestowed, but as the name suggests…it is believed that those Crests perished and were never inherited. Then falls the third, and perhaps most feared category, the Dark Crests…negative, evil Crests that should have been destroyed when first conceived. My guess is that the third category has been inherited by certain soldiers of this Omega Faction."

"Quite right Zephy…but these warriors do not consider them selves part of the Crest, but think of themselves as a whole new and 'superior' group called the Psychics. I'm not trying to dampen your spirits but they may be as powerful as you…maybe even stronger." Roland pointed out, "I'll be the judge of that." grumbled Sem Deth.

Bengala then asked, "Okay…well besides being completely shocked by the fact that there are more Crests out there then I thought…I just have one question for you Roland…what role do you have in all this?"

Roland seemed to take a proud looking smile and said, "I am one of the Fallen Crests…the Crest of Victory, I inherited it from my father."

"So where is your father Roland?" Xeanica asked out of curiosity, Roland looked down on himself at that question and said, "He crossed the River Styx a long time ago…I'd rather not get into that story."

Grace came towards Roland in an attempt to comfort him, but Roland stepped back from her, "I don't need your pity!" he snapped. "And plus that's not the worst…about the Psychics I mean, they're attempting to open a gate to Drakonia."

"Okay now I'm going to say that's not possible," said Zephy, "I'm the only one who can open a portal to Drakonia, well me or one of the Guardians but it still stands."

Roland shook his head, "One of the Psychics is called Gatekeeper…and as the name suggests he's trying his hardest to open a portal there, but my guess is it'll take some time…time the other Psychics are going to buy for him, a few of them are already on this planet who are to make sure to keep an eye on and out for you." Roland looked around the room, all of them seemed to be hanging on his every word…even some of the skeptic ones. "Which is why I'm asking you all to move into the Tower…I know that this place has been built to handle multiple residents, and I know this place will be perfect for our main base of operations."

"I hope you know how short notice this is?" Ambar asked him, Roland nodded and said, "Yes and I apologize…but if you're going to be ready for the Psychics, you're all need to be here to back each other up," Suddenly Roland looked at the door, "one moment please."

Roland walked over to the door and swung it open, suddenly Shin fell to the floor in front of it…standing behind it were Vixy and Nearie. Roland looked down at Shin and said, "I figured you were eavesdropping on us, my question is…how much did you hear?"

"Just something about Psychics and a Gatekeeper…please don't hurt me." Shin whined. Roland looked at them and said, "Okay I know there are more of you who're hiding from my line of sight, but it's okay…I'm not mad."

Suddenly Hope and Lionhawk appeared from the edges of the entryway, Roland looked at them, "I need to speak with you five…right now and alone."

As Roland closed the door behind them "What do you suppose that's all about?" Grace asked. "I have an idea…but if I'm right you're not going to like it." Kayin replied.

As the kids followed Roland he started to speak, "I figure you were all born after the Ancestral War…so you've never had to face death or suffering, but with the Psychics…that may all change real soon." Roland then stopped and whirled around to face them, "Which is why I'll be training you…so when the time arises you can meet this threat in the face."

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa buddy…I'm no fighter, none of us are!" Shin argued.

"And I respect that…but I have a gut feeling that your parents and their friends may not be able to do this alone, plus I sense in all of you a power that you haven't tapped into…you all believe you've hit a wall in your powers and that's the cap of it, but with my training. I can help you get past that wall and make you bring on a strength you never believed you had."

"I don't know about this…I mean I know what we have to do, but—" Hope started to say, but then started to break into a sobbing fit. Roland put his hand on her shoulder and said, "I know it's going to be hard for you…but believe me there was a time when I was like you and I didn't want to fight either, but realize what will happen if your parents fail and Gatekeeper is successful in opening a portal to Drakonia, is that what you want to see?"

"No…I don't." Hope replied.

"Well you don't have to ask me…I'm in." Lionhawk responded.

"Heck I'll try anything once…I'm in too." Shin responded.

"Well, you've convinced me." Nearie replied.

"I don't like the idea of becoming a warrior…but if it means stopping these 'Psychics' I guess I'll have to get my hands dirty sooner or later." Vixy added in.

Roland looked at Hope and said, "You know…it's up to you, but we could really use your help." Hope finally gave a faint smile and said, "Okay…I'm onboard."

"Excellent…let's go back in to your families, have supper, oh…and training starts the day after tomorrow." said Roland.

With that they re-entered the meeting room, shared a few laughs, and had a great time…supper being cut short on the count of Geeku devouring the 7 bowls of soup (which were enough to feed at least four people each)

Later that night Roland stepped out onto the balcony, staring out at Prism and in a deep concentration of thought, suddenly he heard someone come from behind him. He quickly grabbed one of his two guns and whirled around, "Whoa pal…watch where you point that thing." Howl pointed out, Roland re-holstered his weapon and went back to what he was doing before. "Penny for your thought?" Howl asked, Roland said, "They're out there…the Psychics I mean, they're watching us all, waiting for the opportune time to strike, and to say the least I don't see all of us coming back here after this is over. I want to ask you something…and I know you won't speak for all of the others, but if Vixy, Shin, Hope…if they had to help fight too, would you allow it?"

Howl nodded and Roland gave a faint smile and said, "And another thing, that kid of Kayin's…Hope I mean, I know this might sound crazy. But I can sense something inside her, a sort of power…and let me tell you this, it's waking up as we speak."

"How powerful will it make her?" Howl asked, Roland shook his head, "I dunno…all I do is that when it does, she'll have to learn to control it." As Howl left he said, "Oh and Zephy wanted me to tell you, she alerted Drakonia about Gatekeeper…they've put sort of a 'filtering system' around it."

Roland didn't answer, but he thought: "_He'll find another way…you've only slowed him down_."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Painful Memories

Roland left his room and made his way to the roof, he looked around and saw all the hot springs, he could see his ship had landed safely away from them. "_Time for a diagnostic check up_." Roland thought to himself, he quickly started it up…and went through every program at least three times before turning it off again.

"Nice piece of machinery you've got there." said a voice from behind, Roland turned around and saw Ambar standing behind him, she had a towel wrapped around her. "Where'd you come from?" Roland asked. "After what you told us about the Omega Faction I thought a soak in one of these hot springs would help me unwind. So did you make this?"

"Well actually I followed some blueprints my father had drawn up, I've some more in a safety deposit box in London." Roland replied. "He was a genius…he was a technician during the war, I was born some time near the end."

"What side was your father on?" Ambar asked, Roland took a deep sigh and said, "The wrong one."

"You don't mind if _I_ ask how your father died?" Ambar asked, "Look…what's done is done, I can't change any of it." Roland snapped, with that he went back to his room, got into bed, closed his eyes, hoping to dream of happier times.

But oh how hope fades.

_"_Well…it looks as if Alistair Victoire has fallen pray to me._"_ said a cold voice.

_"_ I am a victim to no one._"_ said the other voice.

Suddenly there came a bright flash of light, the room of which the two men stood was a complete mess. The two men still fighting each other.

"_No…not this, not again…please let me wake, let me wake_."

Suddenly he saw the door open and a 7 year old version of Roland stepped out of his bedroom, just in time to see the man, his father…die, stabbed just below the rib cage. Then he saw his younger self in a blitz of rage pick up one of his father's daggers and charge at the man who had wronged him.

But Roland knew what happened next, the stranger smashed him in the head with the hilt of his sword, knocking him out. After that all he could remember is waking up in his neighbors' apartment.

Roland then heard a soft voice around him say, _"Roland…wake up, Roland…wake up_._"_

Suddenly Roland snapped back to reality, he was in a cold sweat…there was a faint odor of something in the air, he looked down and wouldn't you know it…he wet himself. He looked around and saw Vixy and Kate to his right, "What are you two doing here?"

"Vixy said she heard you screaming, what ever you were dreaming about…it was enough to make you do that." Roland looked where Kate was pointing and saw a baseball sized hole in the wall, he looked through it and saw it went straight through to the one next to it."

"That's my room if you need to know." Vixy told him.

"Get the others in here," Roland told them, "I think it's time I told you my story."

When everyone arrived Roland took a deep sigh and said, "As you recall I told you my father died a long time ago," a shadow seemed to cross Roland's face at this point, "what I didn't tell you is that his death wasn't natural…it was untimely."

"What was it, car crash, a work related accident?" Grace asked, Roland's face then lost all emotion, "Homicide."

Everyone sort of gave a look of shock (except for Sem…who just stayed with his back against the wall), "Roland that's horrible…your mother must've been devastated!" Carmesi exclaimed. "She wasn't there either…died before I was even 2."

"So you've never had anyone to look after you?!" Nearie asked, Roland nodded, "Just call me 'Peter Pan' I suppose. Only I'd never truly found my Neverland, I suppose after that I left home and traveled the world. Check my traveling purse and you'll find at least several different passports." Minos walked over to it and opened it up, he found what Roland was talking about, several passports from places such as Egypt, China, and the UK. Roland continued: "Yeah I've traveled almost all over this great world of ours, I was 10 when I visited Egypt…that's where my fears were put to sleep for a while, a lady in black clothing used some kind of voodoo to repress the nightmare I just had tonight. She also gave me a few crystal pendulums that she said would 'help me find peace and unity when the time came'. After that, that's when the weirdest of things started happening."

"Like what?" Feather asked, Roland took another deep sigh and said, "You're not going to believe me. But here it goes…I started having memory lapses, I'd be someplace one minute, and then somewhere else hours or days later with god knows what and god knows who without any memory of how I got there."

"So what maybe you just had one drink too many." Bengala told him. Roland shook his head, "I haven't touched a beer or anything near that in my life…though I would wake up _with _a hangover."

"But how did you survive so long without any money?" Vixy asked.

"I patented and sold a few of my fathers' blue prints…made quite a bit of money out of it all." Roland responded, "Now…if you don't mind I'd like to be alone."

When everyone was gone Roland heard Vixy say, "You know…it's sad actually, not having anyone to care for you. You must've grown cold along the way."

Roland walked over to the hole in the wall, "What do you mean by that?" he asked. "I mean you never really knew what love was, to you love must've only been a dream." Vixy answered.

"Alas too true, too true." said Roland, "Well goodnight."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: First Shot

"Gatekeeper…how goes your part of the mission so far?" asked a wolf dressed mostly in black asked, a peacock in a what could only be described as a 'pirate shirt', khakis, and formal sandals said in a calm emotionless voice, "The other end of this portal has been sealed off to me somehow…I think the Crest knows about our plan. Are we sending any of our troops?"

The wolf chuckled and said, "No need…Tau Factions' already sent a portion of their troops to Neo-Earth, but we have three of our group down there to make sure nothing goes awry. Oh…and the Generals are getting restless, they're wonder when you'll be done with all this."

Gatekeeper remained in his trance and said, "With this barrier in place it'll take longer than first estimated…tell them several weeks."

"Several weeks, they're not going to be happy with that." The wolf replied, "Well tell them if they have a problem with that estimate then they can come down here and see me themselves." said Gatekeeper.

Roland awoke that morning to a red sunrise, "_Red sails at morning, sailor take warning_." He thought to himself, as he changed into a fresh set of clothes he noticed something out of the corner of his eye he saw something moving, he looked and saw the hole in the wall he'd made last night, then he realized that was Vixy's room. She was getting dressed, Roland looked away and tried his hardest trying not to look again. Suddenly he heard a her ask, "You weren't trying to peek at me, were you?"

"I did at first…but right now I'm trying not to." Roland answered, he heard Vixy mumble something that sounded like 'pervert'. Suddenly it hit him, "They're here." he muttered under his breath.

"They're back," Roland told the group in the meeting room, "By the looks of it we have three detachments of ground troops, a detachment of air craft, a few assault vehicles, and three attachments of sea vessels."

"Sounds like the Empire all right, and you were right Roland…something does feel different about them." said Pulsar.

"Well I'll take care of the sea vessels…waters where I work best." chirped Xenica helpfully.

"Aircraft." said Sem, as he made his way for the roof.

"Me and Bangala will handle the ground troops." said Kate.

"I'll get rid of the assault vehicles." Roland told them, "And be careful…remember that the Psychics could be watching your every move."

As soon as they left the building three dark clothed figures appeared before them, "Welly, well, well…looks like the party's about to leave, didn't expect the crashers to show up this late." said one of the figures, a wolf carrying a short sword with a hilt the size of a basketball, behind him was a heavily armored fox with a giant chain, the third was a hawk, a long bow with plenty of arrows at his disposal.

The wolf looked at Minos and Kayin and said, "You two seem to amuse my mind, and my tact," He then removed a manhole cover and fell into the sewer, "Let's take this where your friends won't see." Minos and Kayin jumped down after him.

"Carmesi, Feather…think you can take care of the other two?" Asked Ambar, both nodded slowly and walked over to there opponent, Carmesi chose the fox with the chain. While Feather and the hawk with the arrows set off skyward.

Meanwhile, Roland took off in his flying contraption, he looked down and saw three heavily armored vehicles heading for Prism. "_I do believe that's my target_." Roland thought to himself, he quickly set the autopilot again and jumped out.

"There's the target men, head straight for it…once we've taken the city then this planet's destruction is assured." The sergeant said over the Comm. System, soon he heard one of the soldiers say, "Uh Sarge, we got an unexpected guest."

"Well then what are you waiting for? Blow him away!" The sergeant ordered.

Roland watched as the armored vehicles positioned their weapons on him, Roland quickly took out one of his gun and shot a bullet at the vehicle to his right, and watched the top of it burst into flames. The other two opened fire on him, the Sergeant smiled fiendishly as he thought that he'd annihilated Roland, but when the smoke cleared he saw a suit of silver and maroon colored armor standing where Roland had been, suddenly the suit pointed it's gun at the vehicle to it's left, but instead of the top just blowing up…the entire vehicle became a flame heap of shrapnel. The armored figure pointed the weapon at the vehicle in the center, "I love you Sarge." said the soldier in a weak voice. The armored figure opened fire and blew up the last remaining vehicle, when that was over the armored figure became incased in a sliver radiance and became Roland again, he looked at the burning vehicles in front of him and said, "Can't blame them for trying."

"Black seven to black leader we're on course and set to hit Prism in T-minus 7 minutes." the communicator crackled across the airwaves. Imperial

fighters soared low over the ocean, screaming towards the main city of Neo Earth.

Suddenly an orb of black energy hit one of the Imperial craft, it's energy spread out to 6 other aircrafts all of them exploding one after the other in a chain, "What in Sam Hill!?!" one of the pilots shouted over the communicator, "Men we have enemy fire, find target and fire on sight!" The ships broke off in separate directions, just then another seven exploded. "Where are these shots coming from?" one of the pilots asked himself, just then he thought he caught a glimpse of something, he quickly changed course before another orb of energy was thrown from the figure destroying the remaining aircraft.

Sem saw the last of the jet fighters coming for him and pulled out Kissei (one of his two swords) and ran it through (blade facing the cockpit) the ship and the pilot, destroying the ship and killing the pilot. "Humph…not even worth my time." Sem growled to himself, sheathing his sword and flying back for Ambar Tower.

Meanwhile Kayin and Minos followed the wolf through the sewer, the wolf's pace being dead even…he was in no rush what so ever, soon they were all in a chamber leading down three separate passages of the sewer. The wolf turned back to them, "Well seeing as I'm being a good sport…I'll let you two attack first, you can even use your powers if you want, though there's no guarantee they'll do any good."

"We'll see about that," said Kayin…pulling out his swords and setting to strike the assassin down, but the assassin quickly countered both blades. Minos then tried to sneak in with his hammer. But the assassin dodged that as well.

"_Come on, where is it?_" The assassin thought to himself, suddenly Kayin started powering up for an attack, "_There it is._"

Some symbols' then lit up with some runes on the blade, the blade then disconnected from the hilt, though it was connected to a chain. The blade struck Kayin's energy attack head on and resulted in an explosion throwing both Kayin and Minos into a wall. The assassin made an upward motion with the hilt reconnecting the blade and causing the runes to vanish.

"What the heck was that?!" Minos asked Kayin, Kayin shrugged. The assassin looked at their confusion and smiled, "I see you're trying to figure out what just happened, well allow me to enlighten you. You see this blade was made by Dark Angel, leader of the Psychics…normally my faction doesn't trust them but D.A. has given my other associates and I certain things that'll ensure the Crests' downfall, what my sword does is it reverses any magic you might possess back on you."

"So how do we fight something like that?" Minos asked, Kayin looked sharply at him and said, "Don't you think I've been trying to figure that out!"

Suddenly they heard a small popping sound and a mist formed around them, sleep was the next thing to overtake them, the assassin watched this not only amazed, but realizing he wasn't alone.

He turned around and there was his answer, he saw a wolf in a flannel jacket, white tank top, and faded blue jeans standing behind him. The figure had a black satin pouch around his neck, which he closed with the cord that was weaved into the top of it.

"Oh Wyatt…didn't expect you to be here, but I had things covered…you didn't have to intervene." The assassin told him, Wyatt looked at him and said, "You already blew it so what's the point."

"What are you talking about? I didn't blow anything." The assassin argued, Wyatt continued, still gazing upon the assassin, "You revealed Dark Angel to them, revealed who gave you your power…I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for the sword back."

The assassin brandished it in front of Wyatt and said, "You want it, come and claim it." Wyatt loosened the pouch around his neck and took out some small metal balls about the size of marbles, the assassin lunged at Wyatt, but before the sword could meet its mark Wyatt held the arm holding the balls straight out and with his free hand flicked them off, suddenly the assassins' grip on the blade loosened as he fell flat on his back. Finally letting the sword fly freely in the air until Wyatt caught it, the assassin twitched a few times before finally dying. Wyatt put the sword over his shoulders and looked back at where Kayin and Minos laid, "_Their time will come_." He thought to himself, and then he just left.

Standing atop a rock jutting out of the water, Xeanica stood, watching out over the sea for the enemy ships to come. Clutching the Neptune's Hand in her fist, she waited quietly for her fight to begin. The ocean sprayed her thin body with a supple mist, barely coating her skin with moisture. She sighed once as the ships appeared just at the edge of her vision, wishing she did not have to harm the water to stop them. "But," she said to herself, "I have to, so I best do it now." She raised her trident into the air, and plunged it down into the water. Closing her eyes, she began to glow with a light aqua color as her power flowed from her body into the ocean. Soon, a small gap began to form in the water, which rapidly grew larger and more powerful. Quickly, the surge she was making in the ocean swelled to enormous size, and she slowly raised her trident out of the water. Snapping it forward to point at the ships, Xeanica watched as the surge shot towards the ships. But then, for a brief second, the surge took a reddish hue before shriveling down to nothing. Xeanica looked dumbfounded, "What in the name of the Argo?"

She then realized someone was behind her, she turned around to the beach behind her and who should she see. But the guy in the clear rain poncho again, she swam over towards him to get a better look, she finally got a closer view of him. He was a human boy probably about Nearie's age if not older, he had a blue baseball cap on which covered the hay blond hair underneath, and his blue eyes seemed to reflect the ocean itself. Underneath the poncho Xeanica could see the makings of a long sleeve T-shirt and black sweat pants, he also had loafers on.

"Did you like my little trick?" The stranger asked, Xeanica didn't break her gave but pointed to the ships, "Why are you trying to help _them_!?" she asked sternly. The stranger shook his head and said, "Why…you ask? Well the answer is simple, because they're the force that'll purge this planet—no, the _universe_, of all its evil."

"But the Empire _is _evil," Xeanica told him, "listen I have friends in Prism who could tell you of the Empires' misdeeds. I mean they've destroyed worlds—."

"You mean they _purified _them, ridded them of their unlawful business men, their 'whores of Babylon', of their…_bullies_!" the stranger said, "When I was growing up here, on this world I was always made fun of by other people whether it be Anthro or my own kind…the Empire made me see the evil on this world and the Psychics told me how they were going to purge the universe of it."

"Whoa, wait…you think that just because you were picked on by a few people the whole universe deserves to suffer!?" Xeanica asked, the stranger nodded and said, "It's the only way I can receive justice." Xeanica gave a sarcastic chuckle and said, "I'm sorry buddy…but that's not _justice_, its _vengeance_, and _vengeance_ never works out."

The stranger looked at her sharply and said, "I don't need to explain myself to you, and it's not like you can beat me anyway." Xeanica pointed her trident at him and said, "I can try." An aqua color beam shot into the water creating a giant water spout that headed straight for them, the stranger looked at it and smiled saying, "A water spout…impressive, that would work," suddenly the stranger to a pin to his index finger and watched as a drop of his blood hit the water, suddenly the water spout turned a reddish hue (same as the tidal surge had) and disappeared back into the water. The stranger turned around and said, "or should I say _would've worked_…seven months ago, before I had any control over my powers, but let me ask you one question before I depart…_oh _mighty Wather Crest, can your little trident do _this_?" the stranger pricked his finger again and let another drop of blood hit the water, both watched as the water started to boil, shoot upward, and take the shape of a giant hand.

Xeanica looked at the giant appendage and said, "No…how did you?" the stranger turned around and said, "That's for me to know and you to never find out, but if you survive this, tell your friends that Taylor Monaghan did this to you." Suddenly the giant water hand swung back and slapped Xeanica across the beach as if she was no more than a large mosquito on a persons' arm, she hit the ground hard and lost saw Taylor take dive into the water before she lost conciseness.

Upon the rooftops of Prism, Carmesi leapt from building to building, avoiding the massive chain of the Imperial warrior. The warrior's thick armor made it almost impossible to hurt him with any direct attack. Carmesi decided she had to outrun him in order to live. Diving from building to building, Carmesi smiled to herself, sure she had completely outmaneuvered her opponent. However, when she looked behind to see where he was, Carmesi gasped to see the warrior pursuing her along parallel buildings. Despite the massive armor, the fox moved with equal speed and Carmesi could find no way to shake him off. The two fighters sprinted alongside one another, with a gap between them. As they ran, Carmesi felt the fiery energy building inside of her, transferring to her swords. Yelling loudly, the assassin threw the chain across the space between the two buildings, lodging in the side of Carmesi's building, mere inches from her head. Spotting the opening, Carmesi kicked off the wall, landing on top of the warrior's chain. With long, graceful strides, she covered the gap between the two fighters. Her swords glowed brightly as her energy poured into them. Shouting a battle cry, Carmesi leapt at her attacker, the attack then let go of the chain and put his arms out to his sides, "_What is he doing,_" Carmesi thought to herself, "_he looks as if he's _embracing _my attack_!?" suddenly Carmesi noticed a bunch of glowing runes were starting to appear on the surface of the armor, the moment her blades hit she felt something inside the armor push them and her away with deadly force. She rolled across the ground, spinning out of control upon it, catching herself just before going over the edge. The Imperial soldier laughed and said, "Come on Carmesi…is that the _best _you can do?"

Carmesi got up and looked at the warrior, something about his voice was familiar…but what. "How do you know my name?" she asked, tightly gripping the handles of her swords. The heavy armored fox cocked his head, "The same way I know that your friend Howl killed me, or _tried_ to I should say."

"Howls' killed a lot of Imperial soldiers, you'll have to be more specific." Carmesi pointed out, the assassin gave a sigh and said, "It was back when you were still one of us, back when we were still friends…maybe more, ever since the accident I only have bits and pieces of my life before that. Try a factory…I had lured Howl there to finish him off and claim his Crest for my own, but the intensity of the battle was so great that the factory started catching fire. I was gravely hurt, Howl as well…finally with his Crest powers he blew me into some flaming debris. You arrived there just when I needed you the most, I kept asking you to help put me out since you had been endowed with the Fire Crest." Suddenly Carmesi could hear someone's voice inside her head screaming "CARMESI HELP, PUT ME OUT! CARMESI PUT ME OUT, I'M BURNING CARMESI…HELP!!!"

The warrior continued, "But instead of doing what I had asked of you, you left with Howl and left me to die! There does that story sound familiar to you?"

Carmesi looked at him, then it came back…of course, they may not have seen him escape, but it didn't mean he wasn't still alive. "Carge? (Author's Note: pronounced like this-karj)" she asked, "Is it really you?"

The warrior took off his helmet to reveal the face beneath, he was a fox with deep blue hair…his face though told a more painful looking story, a few tuffs of his orange-red fur were actually discolored to gray, a huge purple scar went down the right side of his face, going over his eye. His eyes color was as odd as his face, one was a yellow, perfectly normal eye, but the one where the scar showed was like a white marble.

Carmesi stepped back in disbelief; he looked like death warmed over. "Yes it's me…I still carry the scars from my battle with Howl, I was actually hoping to fight him but you'll make a fine substitute." Carge then swung the chain at Carmesi, she leapt into the air to dodge it, but then Carge flicked his wrist making it snap upward and wrap itself around the hilt of one of her swords, from there he gave the chain a tug and brought the blade over to his hand.

He looked at it, handled it a bit, then looked at the chain in disgust and said, "Don't need _this_ anymore." Throwing the chain aside he quickly leapt into the air and came at Carmesi with her own blade, the blade took a crimson glow as he headed down towards her. Carmesi did a cartwheel, dodging a direct hit. But the A/C module that was behind them split in two/ melted. Carmesi looked at Carge, "I've developed my own control over fire since the last time you saw me." He said with a smile.

Meanwhile Feather and the hawk assassin soared over the city dodging each others attacks, Feather was dodging the most because of how quickly the assassin could reload his bow. Feather then took out a short sword she'd made and filled it with her Crest energy, the hawk warrior saw a rune light up on the head of the arrow and whispered, "Now let's see what you can do." He fired it off, Feather moved out of the way and cut the arrow in two pieces, just then she saw the front half of the arrow grow a new back half and vise versa with the end half. She then watched as both arrows dived, circled back around and head straight for her. She dodged them again and they came back around, "I'd stop trying to avoid those…they're locked on to your Crest energy, they'll keep chasing you for days before losing their potency."

Feather landed on the ground and looked for someplace to hide, behind her she could hear the faint whipping sound of the arrows coming for her. She finally hid behind a mail box just as she heard the arrows sink in the mail box exploded, sending her flying into the front window of a parked car. She rolled off the hood and landed on all fours, dazed and breathing heavily. The hawk assassin landed right next to her and reloaded his bow saying, "Oh, did I forget to mention the gun-powder in the arrow head? Well you won't live long enough to tell anybody about it." He pulled back on the bow ready for the kill shot, Feather looked at the arrow head and felt like a deer caught in the oncoming headlights of a semi-truck. Suddenly the hawk warriors head, right arm, and a good chunk of his upper-right side exploded in a geyser of blood and feathers. He was dead long before hitting the ground, but Feather was covered in the blood bath and looked to see what had happened. The armored Roland stood behind them, one of his guns pointed straight at where the assassin had been standing.

Roland then transformed back to his normal self and re-holstered the gun, "Thank you Roland." Said Feather. Kate and Bengala were the next to return, followed by Sem.

"Where are the others they should've been back by now?" Asked Roland. Suddenly the whole group heard a bunch of explosions coming from Ambar Tower, they headed over to see the Imperial battleships blasting the heck out of it, "I thought Xeanica said she'd take care of those." Kate pointed out.

Roland's flying contraption suddenly whizzed by them the gun turrets on the wings blazing, they watched as one by one the battleships went up in flames. Suddenly they heard a similar sort of explosions coming from the rooftops of the city, "It's Carmesi."

Carmesi had done a good job of parrying Carge's attacks, but she had to end this soon. But Carge showed no sign of letting up, she felt more of her Crest energy following into the blade of the sword she still held. Finally stopping in front of her friends Carmesi turned around and attacked Carge again, and again the attack repelled her somehow and threw her across the street. Carge swung his sword and managed to cut her cheek before she got to far away, Carmesi staggered back to her feet while Carge used the sword to support a bit of his weight, both of them were breathing heavily. Carge then looked at the other Crest warriors standing next to him and tossed Carmesi back her sword, he then pulled out a glass orb and smashed it on the ground, the orb released a mist veiling Carge's body. Carge's last words before it started clearing were: "You haven't seen the last of me Carmesi, and either has Howl…I will get my vengeance!" and with that he was gone, soon after Kayin and Minos came lumbering out of the sewers, Xeanica showed up a few minutes later, explaining how the ships got past her. "I knew it," Roland blurted out, "see what I'm talking about now? The Psychics are watching us…we have to be careful."

Back at the tower Carmesi told Howl about her ill-fated run-in with Carge, "Carge…Lt. Carge, you're sure it was him?" Howl asked, Carmesi nodded. Howl let out a low whistle, he left the room and stepped onto the roof of the tower.

Meanwhile Nearie was reading a book when she heard a knock on the door, she opened and there stood Roland with a sheet of paper in his hand, "Hey I just finished this put earlier today, it's the schedule I set up for the training I'm going to give you and the others." He handed her the sheet and she scanned it, "Looks like you have all this down, time, diet…hello totalitarianism. But if it'll help us face these Psychics…I'm ready."

"Good, Lionhawk also agreed with the schedule, Hope and Shin were the average response I was expecting." Roland told her, "What about Vixy, how'd she handle it?" Nearie asked. Roland then looked nervously around and said, "Uh, if you see her…lie and tell her you haven't seen me."

"THERE YOU ARE!" Came a voice from down the hall, Roland looked to his left and gave a startled yelp before running the other way, Vixy came charging down the hall after him yelling, "You JERK, this is definitely going to wreck my social life you little PRICK!"

Meanwhile back at the Psychics lair Dark Angel again confronted Gatekeeper, "I told them what you told me, they weren't happy…don't be surprised if they send somebody down here to hurry you by force." said Dark Angel, "I'll have my way with them…as always." Gatekeeper replied, "I also have some news for you…I've found a way to get past the barrier."

"Well then let it out already." Dark Angel ordered, Gatekeeper continued, "Draconic energy…dragon energy in other words, and there's a ripe source of this energy on Neo-Earth in Prism…I _must_ have it."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Calling Out (Howl vs. Carge)

Howl barely got any sleep that night, he just couldn't stop thinking about Carmesi's run-in with Lt. Carge, around 3 in the morning he got out of bed and went for a soak in one of the hot springs on the roof of the Tower. He then heard something from behind him; he turned around to see Roland working on something. He got out of the hot spring and with a towel wrapped around him walked over to Roland, "What you doing?" he asked. Roland looked up and said, "Oh just making something I feel I'll need later, I'll be quite relaxed when it's finished."

Roland offered Howl a cup of coffee, which Howl thanked him for. Roland then looked at Howl, "Is something the matter?" Roland asked, Howl told Roland about Carge. "Okay…and what sort of past does this guy share with you?" Roland asked next, Howl went on to tell him about the factory accident that Howl and Carmesi always thought had killed Carge. "And now that you know he's alive, you sort of wonder if any of the other Imperial soldiers you killed survived." Roland pointed out; Howl hung his head and gave a slight nod. Roland looked at him and said, "Would it make you feel any better if I said you look like such a fierce warrior that you make me want to wet myself?"

Howl chuckled a bit, just then he told Roland to be quiet, "What is it?" Roland asked, Howl looked at him and said, "We're not alone up here." Howl walked over to where the noise was loudest, he then turned the corner and found…nothing, and he started to make his way back, when he heard a voice say, "Don't tell me you're giving up Howl…or is it that your skills have really grown that lax?" How looked up and there on the edge of the elevator structure roof was Carge, and Carmesi wasn't kidding…he did look like hell. "**YOU!**" Howl hollered, he then leapt up to attack Carge. But instead of striking armor, his fist went straight through him…causing Howl to fall flat on his front. Carge pushed himself off and landed behind Howl, a smirk on his face. "You obviously don't think I'd show up here in person…now did you, it'd be a suicide mission for me. What you're seeing is a physical manifestation of my body."

"What did you come here for?" Howl asked getting back to his feet, Carge looked at him and said, "Well I just assumed that since you know I survived our last little endeavor years ago that you'd like another chance to put me to rest?" Carge then handed Howl a small sheet of paper, Howl unfolded it…it was a map. "Meet me at that location, and yes it is drawn to scale…I'll give you your chance to settle me there." With that the manifestation of Carge disappeared.

Howl came back and looked at the map a bit more, Roland came over and asked, "Howl…what is that?" Howl looked at Roland and said, "A map Carge gave me, he wants me to fight him…and I'm going so I can put him to rest once and for all."

With that Howl took off, Roland turned around, "Oh shit!" Roland then took off for the elevator; he knew there was only one person who could possibly help him now.

Carmesi was still sleeping when a thunderous knock on the door woke her up, "Who is it?" She asked irritated, "Carmesi…its Roland, get up…we have to hurry!" Roland said rather quickly, she looked over at the clock, "its 4:15 in the morning, go back to sleep!" she groaned. "If you don't get up right now…your husband could be sleeping the big sleep!" Roland told her sound more anxious, "What are you talking about?" Carmesi asked. What Roland told her next caught her attention, "Howl went off to fight Carge!"

With that Roland heard the unlocking of the door and saw it swing open, "Are you sure?" Carmesi asked, Roland didn't answer though…instead he had a look of shock on his w/ his mouth agape. Carmesi saw where Roland was staring and said, "Hello, Roland…can you hear me!"

Roland finally broke his gaze and said, "Yeah, he had a map drawn on a piece of paper and everything…uh, if you couldn't mind could you please—." Roland started, "Of course…I'll get dressed, get my swords, and then we'll leave."

"Thank you, you're tit—I mean _too_ kind!" Roland said with a bit of a frustrated growl, the door closed Roland put his back to the wall and thought, "_I was closer to an organism then I ever should've been_."

Meanwhile Howl looked around as he flew; he knew he was close to where Carge said he'd be. Howl looked down and standing right there was a figure in a black traveling cloak that looked like it had seen better days, Howl landed and looked at the robed figure. "I knew you'd show up Howl, so are you surprised to see me again?" Carge asked, removing the robe. "I didn't come here to talk Carge; I came here to put you to rest." Howl snapped, Carge nodded, "Very well…but as you'll soon find out I won't be that easily rested!" Carge then pulled out two swords that looked strikingly similar to Carmesi's, "Those look like Carmesi's blades!" said Howl, Carge nodded, "Almost perfect simulations…except I traded the deep blue handle colour for black, the golden colored blade for grey tempered steel, and I placed pearls on the hilt in place of the rubies Carmesi has on hers."

Carge was the first to attack, leaping into the air and come back down swinging both blades, Howl dodged both blades and countered with a kick to Carges' chest. Carge then returned with a dropkick, both combatants circled each other…refusing to break gaze.

"I have to admit I'm impressed," said Roland, watching the fight with Carmesi from afar, "But something doesn't feel right—about Carge I mean, there's something unique about him."

"Let's hope Howl senses it too." Carmesi whispered to herself.

Meanwhile the battle between Howl and Carge had started up again, this time Howl attacked with a barrage of punches, but Carge dodged those and with one of his swords made a shallow cut across Howls' chest, Howl winced as he felt the blade cut him. Howl then felt the dark energy flowing through him, Carge could sense this energy and saw the runes lighting up on his armor again. Howl then came at Carge with another kick to the chest, only this time instead of hitting it sent Howl flying away from Carge about twelve feet, Howl looked at Carge stunned. Carge smiled and said, "I guess you're wondering how that happened…well my armor is enchanted to block any Crest energy that comes near it, but it not only does that but it sends the attack back to the attacker at 2/3 the force of which it was given."

The battle then started to gain intensity, Carge came at Howl again with his swords, Howl dodged them again and delivered a sweep kick, Carge dodged the counter and threw a roundhouse kick at Howl's side, Howl back-flipped over this and threw another kick at Carge. The kick struck Carge and knocked him to the ground, Carge retaliated by kicking Howl in the chest, knocking him to the ground as well. Both of them finally made it back to their feet and started circling again.

Carmesi watched this amazed, Roland rubbed his chin and thought, "_Where have I seen this fighting style before…it seems so familiar_."

Howl looked at Carge, he was breaking a light sweat…obviously the battle had begun tiring him. But Howl himself realized he couldn't keep this up forever, his legs felt slightly numb. "I have to admit Howl…out of all the people I slayed in my past, you're the only one who offered any _real _challenge to me."

"But Carmesi said you couldn't remember your past." Howl said to him, Carge said, "Well…yes and no, I remember a few things…but my memory is still in bits and pieces. But I've changed from the last time you saw me, that little blade trick I used on Carmesi was only one power I have. Allow me to show you another."

Suddenly Carge's eyes rolled back into his head, he crossed his blades in front of him for a few seconds, and then he snapped back to reality and ran at Howl with the blades trailing behind him. He swung one of the blades at Howl; Howl caught it though, and felt a slight jolt of something go through it and into him. Howl flew across the ground again dazed, he looked at Carge, he had a big grin on his face. "I can control the power of Thunder too, as well as Fire, Earth, Wind, take your pick."

Suddenly it hit Roland where he'd seen this fighting style before, "_A Drakonian Elementalist…I should've realized it from the start_!"

"A Drakonian Elemental…that's what's so unique about Carge." Roland told Carmesi, and she believed it too…the Guardians had told her and the rest of the Crest about Drakonian Elementals, it was just hard to believe that they would ever be fighting one. "But the Guardians said they were extinct, how could Carge be one?" Carmesi asked, "They weren't all extinct…some were exiled from Drakonia, but how Carge became one is beyond me." Roland told her.

Suddenly it started to rain, making the electricity on Carge's swords appear, Carge came running at Howl again. Swinging his blades like crazy, Howl knew that getting hit by those things when he'd been dry was bad…but now that he was getting soaked one hit from those blades could be fatal, so he had to keep dodging until he saw a moment to attack. That moment finally came when Carge swung one of his swords out wide, Howl ducked beneath it, delivered a kick that released the sword from Carge's hand, and caught it.

Carge brandished his blade in front of Howl, "So what if you now have my blade, it'll be mine again before long." Carge taunted, Howl charged the sword up with his Crest energy, "That has yet to be seen."

Suddenly both Howl and Carge took off into the air, with lightening fast speed…this was followed by several small explosions that lit up the sky for brief moments before both combatants again came to the ground facing away from each other, Howl looked at his forearms to see a series of cuts across them, Carges' handy work. But Carge had not escaped unharmed either, he had a small cut across his left cheek, and his bracers were starting to crack and fall apart, both of them were breathing heavily…Carge then stood up, and with gallant strides kicked Howl in the small of the back, forcing him to give up the other blade, Carge grabbed it before it hit the ground and then both disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Howl finally stood up and watched as the sun rose, Carmesi walked over to his side, "We're going to have a fun one explaining to the others how this happened? Aren't we Roland." She looked around, but Roland was gone as well. But it didn't matter…Howl and Carmesi flew back to the Tower together.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Medical Mayhem (Kayin vs. 'Doctor'/Geeku vs. 'Doctor' Pt. 1/ Hope vs. 'Doctor'/Geeku vs. 'Doctor' Pt. 2/ Roland vs. 'Doctor')

Vixy woke up at 5:15 in the morning, she quickly got dressed and went out to the roof, and Nearie was the next to show up, followed by Hope and Shin, Lionhawk was the last to show up. All of them conversed a bit before Roland showed up; he set up a small camera-like device and connected it to a floppy drive. He then said, "Well…I'm glad to see you're all here, now I know some of you didn't really agree with my schedule. But when this is over you 'll be finding that the sacrifices you made were well worth it."

He then turned the camera device on and looked at Shin, "Okay…now Shin I'm going to ask you to step in front of the device I have set up here and give me everything you've got." Shin did as Roland asked, the whole thing took at least three minutes, Roland then asked the others to do the same, when that was done Roland took a disk out of the floppy drive and said, "Okay…now that that part is over, here's the next thing we're going to do is I want you to fight me one-on-one…don't think of me as Roland, think of me as one of the Psychics. Shin…as with the scanner you're up first."

One by one they all took on Roland…and one by one they all got knocked on their butts one way or the other, when that was done Roland said, "Okay…after this assessment I've made some discoveries about you. Shin, you guard your right side a bit too much. Nearie, you protect your front more than your sides or back. Lionhawk, you attend to think that once you've knocked the wind out of your opponent you have the upper hand. Vixy, you protect your upper body more than your lower. And Hope…You tend to let your opponent get a little too close." Roland looked at all of them and said, "But don't worry…this is just the first assessment, today I want you training with your parents, because tomorrow…tomorrow begins your training with me, and I'll be a lot harder on you than they'd ever be."

Roland then looked out at the city from the roof, Vixy walked over…he seemed really lost in thought, "Penny for your thoughts?" she asked, Roland looked at her and said, "You know before I met any of you…I only had myself and a few connections of mine, I mean sure it wasn't much but it got me by."

"You know I just realized we don't know that much about you…besides that you traveled the world, I guess what I'd like to know is—." Vixy started saying, "How I made enough money to keep me alive?"

Vixy nodded and said, "Why don't you take a walk with me and you can tell me all about it?" Roland looked at her and thought, "_Good looking girl…asks a drifter like me to take a walk with her and tell her my stories…_" Roland then pinched his forearm to make sure he wasn't dreaming, he wasn't. "Sure…love to." was his reply.

As they walked Vixy learned a bit more about Roland's past, apparently it was more disturbing…he'd gotten money by signing up for Pride Fighting tournaments, apparently he was a three-time champion and had held that title for five years straight, after that he settled in London for a good part of his life until he'd heard from one of his contacts Andros about the Psychics and came here. "And that me…me and a bag of chips, nothing more and nothing less."

"Oh I believe there's more, like these memory lapses…what's your take on them?" Vixy asked, Roland scratched his head a bit and said, "Okay…but promise not to laugh," Vixy nodded, "I think there's another side to me, a darker one that I don't see but it's there." Vixy didn't laugh, but she looked concerned, "Have you ever considered seeing a psychiatrist about this?" she asked, Roland shook his head, "And I don't see a need to, I have a pretty good handle on it." Vixy then gave a worried look, "If you say so." she said weakly. Roland suddenly looked to his right, a stern look on his face, "There he is…"

"There who is?" Vixy asked, Roland then closed his eyes and said, "There…can't you feel that?" Vixy looked in the direction Roland was facing, suddenly it hit her like a strong breeze. Roland looked a her, "I know…it scares me too, it has to be one of the Psychics."

Back at the tower Vixy told the Crests about what had transpired with her and Roland, "Was there anything else you could feel with this darkness?" Bengala asked, Roland nodded, "Illness…fatality…with a hint of filtered air."

"Has to be a hospital…they have an air filter." Ambar pointed out, a shadow suddenly crossed Roland's eyes, "Then it has to be Bardéz."

"You know one of the Psychics?" Zephy asked, Roland looked at all of them and said, "I was asked by their leader to join them, if I hadn't refused…well, let's say half of you wouldn't be standing here today."

"Well if you know this Bardéz, then you must know the other Psychics as well." Zephy pointed out, Roland gave a single nod and said, "But I only know a few of them…one is Bardéz, or as the Psychics call him 'Doctor', another is Wyatt Oliver Westcot III, 'Sniper'…and Lukyan Del Röc, 'Gatekeeper'. But that's all I truly know beyond there leader, sorry if that wasn't much help."

"Nonsense, you gave us names…now we know who to look for." Ambar told him, "Apogeo," Ambar called out…suddenly a voice came from around them, "Yes Mrs. Ambar…do you need a service of some kind?"

"We need you to look up two names for us, history included…one is Wyatt Oliver Westcot III…the other is Lukyan Del Röc." Ambar told the computer, the voice said, "I'll get right on it."

"Meanwhile," Roland said slowly looking at Howl, "You and I Howl have to pay Dr. Bardéz a visit, let me see your wrist." Howl showed Roland his wrist, Roland quickly took out a knife and cut it. "What did you do that for?!" Howl yelled at him, Roland gave a heavy sigh and said, "We need a plausible story to tell the front desk, this would most likely be seen as a kitchen incident. Now come on we're wasting time."

Howl and Roland arrived at the hospital front desk, Roland explained his story to the front desk. Howl was quickly escorted to one of the rooms, "Don't worry sir, we'll have one of the doctors check in on you shortly." Roland looked around and said, "Gee, you'd think there'd be more help in a place like this."

"There would be…if they weren't all sick," a voice said from behind them, they both turned around to see a man with black hair was in the bed next to them, "What do you mean sick?" Howl asked, "Nurses, Doctors, and a few patients have been coming down with some type of illness that seems to have no source. I would know I'm one of the paramedics around here, it all started happening when this new doctor showed up."

"Let me guess…his name is Bardéz, isn't it?" Roland asked, the man nodded, "Doctor Vincent Bardéz, yes…some people think it's him who's doing this, but without any solid evidence…he's just seen as doing his job." The man told them.

"Okay amigo, I think that's enough story telling for one day." Said a voice from the door, they all looked to see another man in a white lab coat, dark green slacks, and a white shirt with a black tie. He had brown hair and brown eyes, he also had a beard and mustache, and he wore glasses.

Roland looked at the man and said, "Doctor Bardéz, I'll take it." Roland asked, the man nodded and said, "The one and only, now if you wouldn't mind I'd like to ask your friend some questions…you could go to the cafeteria in the meantime and get something to eat." As Roland walked by the doctor he sensed something was wrong, something was going to go down…and somehow he knew Bardéz didn't want him getting in the way.

Bardéz then closed the door and turned his attentions back to Howl, "Well…my friend, it appears you have no real medical record for me to use, so I'm going to need you to fill out these forms so we know who you are and what you're 'all about' as the kids would put it." He handed Howl the clipboard and Howl started filling it out, "But if you wouldn't mind, answer me this one question?" the doctor asked, "Ask away." Howl replied.

Suddenly Bardéz's expression became dark looking, "How did the Darkness Crest know where to find me." Howl started to get up, but Bardéz quickly pulled out a syringe and jammed it into Howl's left arm. Howl struggled, tried to break free, but found Bardéz's grip to be over powering, suddenly Howl just fell asleep. The paramedic saw this, "What did you do to him?!?" The paramedic shrieked, Bardéz turned his attention to him and said, "Gave him just a little morphine, is that a crime?" Suddenly an insect landed on the paramedics shoulder, the next thing he knew was that he felt ill…really ill. "What did you do to me?" The paramedic asked.

"I used one of my insects to inject an illness into you…the same illness that's inflicting the whole entire hospital, for you see…I can't leave any witnesses." Bardéz explained, he watched as the paramedic passed out.

Meanwhile Roland had picked himself up a snack, the food wasn't great but it didn't matter…suddenly Roland felt a jolt of negative energy go through him. He didn't know how to explain it exactly but his Crest was warning him that Howl and himself were in danger, he quickly found a pay phone and dialed the number for Ambar Tower. Roland tapped his foot impatiently, suddenly he heard the phone pick up. "Hello?" Asked Hope's voice. "Hope…now listen to me carefully, I'm going to be leaving shortly…could you and your father keep an eye on Howl for me?" Roland asked, Hope said they'd be there shortly. Roland hung up thinking: "_I'm doing this for the Crest, I have to make them realize how serious the situation is with the Psychics_."

Kayin and Hope arrived a few minutes after Roland left, Kayin could sense it almost instantly…a dark energy was swarming in the hospital, they asked the desk where they would find Howl. They went up to the room to find him asleep, suddenly Bardéz showed up and said, "Friends of the family, I suppose…well I let you stay here, visiting hours aren't quite over yet anyway."

As soon as Bardéz left Howl let out a faint groan, "Kayin?"

"Howl what is it?" Kayin asked, Howl continued, "The doctor…is 'The Psychic' Bardéz. Be careful, he's really strong…for a human."

"So you're Kayin Ravenhurst…heard a lot about you from my boss," A voice said from behind them, they all turned around to see Dr. Bardéz standing right outside the door, an evil grin was on his face, "he told me you were some kind of failed genetic warrior who couldn't get any love from his daddy, how sad that must've been."

Kayin growled at Bardéz, but the doctor continued to smile. Bardéz slowly reached into his coat for another syringe of morphine, Kayin and Hope slowly backed away from the doctor. Bardéz suddenly charged at them, but just as he gripped Kayin's shirt he felt something knock him sideways. Howl had gotten up from the bed and (while still half 'out-of-it') tackled Dr. Bardéz, against the wall, forcing him to let go of Kayin. "Get out of here, get help!" Howl ordered groggily, Kayin and Hope nodded and took off. Suddenly Howl felt something jab into his side, Bardéz had stuck the syringe into him. As the effects of the morphine started to overtake him again he heard the doctor say, "Guess I didn't give you enough the first time…no matter, this'll fix you fine until I'm ready to be done with you myself."

Kayin and Hope were at the elevator when Kayin turned around and said, "Hope, I want you to go back to the Tower…warn the others, I'll stay here and deal with Dr. Bardéz." Hope nodded and entered the elevator, Kayin turned around just as Bardéz was turning the corner. "Do you really think you can contend with me all by yourself Experiment #12?" Bardéz asked, Kayin didn't answer, he just came running at the doctor and delivered a blow to his jaw, the doctor went flying across the hall. Only to use a somersault so he landed on his knees and got up, doctor came at Kayin with an assortment of kicks. Kayin avoided them, grabbed onto the doctors' legs and swung him against the elevator door, again Bardéz staggered to his feet.

"How are you doing this?" Kayin asked, rather amazed that Bardéz was still standing, Dr. Bardéz snickered to himself and said, "My powers allow my body to make it's own pain-killers on thought, what that means essentially is that I can block any bone shattering blows out of my body…but that's just one of the few abilities I have, here's another."

Suddenly the doctor's hands little with a whitish-blue flicker, he then tried to karate chop Kayin. The flicker touched his shirt and made a small tear in it, Kayin looked at it in shock. "Invisi-scalpels…another handy little invention of mine." said Bardéz, he then delivered another karate chop to Kayin, in fact it soon became a barrage of them.

Hope looked around the Tower, it looked deserted despite that it had only been a half an hour. She eventually found Roland and said, "Roland, oh thank goodness I found you." Roland looked at her with a look of slight concern, "What is it Hope?" he asked. Hope explained the situation involving her father and Dr. Bardéz, Roland got up, loaded his two guns (taking extra ammunition with him) and said, "Rock n' Roll babe."

Meanwhile Kayin was still trying to avoid the deadly knife-like blows of Dr. Bardéz, so far it had been a partial success, he'd gotten a few nasty cuts on his chest area as well as his right arm. Finally cornered Bardéz snickered, "Well looks like I'll be able to make this a clean kill…in the words of George Burns: 'Say Goodnight Gracie'."

Suddenly a green blur flew in from the window behind Kayin and kicked Dr. Bardéz halfway across the hall, finally being stopped by falling to the ground backwards by an abandoned gurney. "Nobody hurts one of my friends and gets away with it!" said a familiar voice, Kayin looked to see Geeku standing right in front of him. "What are you doing here?" Kayin asked. "Well I sensed the Dark Crests' energy too, and it lead me here," She then turned to look at the gurney, "I think it's safe to say he won't be bothering us anymore."

Kayin shook his head and said, "From what he told me it'll take a lot more to bring him down." Suddenly they heard a loud groaning noise they both turned to see Dr Bardéz getting back up, by the look on his face he wasn't too happy, "Lamentarão isso durar cadela de tiro!" He yelled before running at Geeku shrieking like a lunatic. Geeku countered Bardéz's assault with the magic blades she could conjure from her bracelets, but Bardéz did a back-flip before Geeku could attack. "Not bad little lady…that kick of yours' would've probably killed me, if I hadn't known about my powers."

"This is going to be one interesting fight then." Geeku chirped, Bardéz shook his head, "If I were you I'd be more worried about Kayin right now than me, just look for yourself."

Geeku turned her head took look at Kayin, he was shivering for some reason. She ran over and looked at his face, the iris' of his eyes were more of a murky light green instead of the brilliant emerald color she'd remembered, she then saw a semi-transparent insect fly by her, its mouth appeared to be a syringe…she watched as it entered Dr. Bardéz's right sleeve and vanished.

"What did you do to him?" Geeku asked sternly. "I infected your friend there with a disease of my own creation, in fact it's the same sickness that ails a third of this hospitals' staff and patients. Right now he's only in the first stage symptoms…so my guess he's got more than an hour and a half left on him." Bardéz replied with a rather dark chuckle. "Okay…what are the stages and symptoms?" Geeku asked. Bardéz cleared his throat then continued, "First stage symptoms are as follows, shivers, delirium, and constant in and out spells of color blindness…stage two is more interesting though, cold-like symptoms start to occur, mainly light coughing fits, color blindness sticks this time and starts to break into occurrences of common blindness every three minutes lasting in ten second loops…but stage three is not only the final curtain for our friend Mr. Ravenhurst, but a masterpiece all in itself, coughing becomes heavy…almost forced, blindness tends to stick around longer until it almost seems permanent, subject breaks out in a rash similar to hives, then finally the victim suffers a violent aneurism, and then there's nothing left……but the crying."

"You undo it RIGHT NOW!" Geeku ordered.

"The only way you'll be able to save him, is by killing me." Bardéz told her, "And we're still in my domain, so that's not going to happen." Bardéz then came charging at her, his hands lit in that ghostly blue flicker of the invisi-scalpes. He then started making quick swipes at Geeku, one swing he heard the familiar sound of cutting flesh which told him he'd met his mark. Geeku knocked him away with her tail, quickly using her Life Crest energy to repair the ten inch gash Bardéz had sliced into her right side. She was able to heal it…but only all the way to a faint scratch, "What the hell?" She asked herself.

"Did you think I'd let your powers not go unchecked here in my domain Life Crest? Or did your mole forget to tell you that all the Psychics can design their domains with certain rules…rules at which are applied by force." Bardéz told her, Geeku laughed and said, "But you gave away a piece of information, if I kill you…or knock you out at least your rules will no longer apply."

"True, true, all too true…but that won't be an easy task to say the least." Bardéz pointed out, then he charged at her for another attack.

Meanwhile Hope and Roland were hurrying along the streets leading to the hospital, "Come on Roland…quit dogging around, my dad could be in trouble." Hope told him, "I'm not dogging…I'm getting my equipment ready, just quit rushing me. We'll get there."

In about ten minutes they finally reached the front of the hospital, suddenly they heard the sound of a window breaking, they both looked up to see a person falling out of the second story window. It was Geeku…she hit the ground with a bone-breaking thud, Hope and Roland ran over to her. She looked really beat up, "Geeku…you okay?" Hope asked. She looked at the two of them, "Kayin's still inside…he's not doing well though." she said weakly. That sent Hope running into the hospital, "HOPE WAIT!" Roland called out, but he wasn't quick enough, Hope had taken off through the double doors and into the building. While Geeku was healing herself she said, "Hope's in trouble…she has no idea what the guy is capable of." Roland looked at her and said, "Tell me what happened." Geeku went in telling him about Bardéz infecting Kayin to when he tossed her out the window, "And the funny thing is…it felt as if he was becoming stronger, like as I became angrier he siphoned off of it and added it to his own strength. If I was Hope…I wouldn't let my emotions get ahead of me."

Hope ran through the halls of the second floor, she knew her father was up here…she could feel it. When she found him, she could see he didn't look too well, "Dad, are you okay?" She asked, Kayin turned to her and said, "Just a little under the weather…I'll be fine."

"Fine is a strong word…considering that you're deep in the first stage of my disease now," said the voice of Dr. Bardéz, Hope got up and faced the person who had caused all this. "and I'm guessing you're Hope Ravenhurst…your father doesn't look so good, I'm afraid we're going to have to quarantine you for reasons of public safety, wouldn't want you infecting your friends now would we."

"I'm staying right here thank you…but seeing as you're one of the Psychics may I ask you a question?" Hope asked, the doctor gave a slow nod, "Why are you doing this? Why are you helping the Empire?"

Dr. Bardéz cracked a smile, "Because they'll purge this universe of all its corruption, it'll give me what I've wanted for years…it'll give me peace."

"But don't you see the Empire is corruption…that you're hurting innocent people just because of some vain promise?" Hope asked, her eyes were burning, but the tears wouldn't come, "Innocent…do you realize how hard it is for me when I have to tell a family that there father or grandfather died of natural causes…or how I have to tell a soon to be mother that she's HIV positive. Do you think they're as understanding as I'd hope they'd be? NO! They get mad at me…well finally all the anger they send to me comes back as this." Bardéz told her, his hand lit up with that flicker of his attack. He then brought it back as if the throw something, when he brought it back down a bunch of that flickering flame separated and came straight for Hope. She managed to duck out of the way, and the attack went to making knife-like holes in a nearby wall. Hope got up…a stern look was in her eyes, "I'm not one who enjoys fighting…I'm more into training with my dad then beating some jerk up, but as the saying goes: 'there's a first time for everything'." Hope quickly closed the gap between her and Dr. Bardéz, delivering a knee to the stomach, she then followed that with a kick to the side of the head. Bardéz hit one of the other walls with bone breaking force, "There…not bad, don't you think?" Hope asked in mock sweetness.

"Yeah…not bad at all, for a little girl," Dr. Bardéz coughed out, suddenly he ran up the wall and got behind Hope. He grabbed her by the hair and hit her head against the wall, "_I_ though on the other hand…have the _experience_ of countless fighters, _I _was taken in by Morgan Edge…the _leader_ of the _Phychics_, he taught me all about the Crest and your _freak_ of a father!" (Author's Note: For a visual…every word in italics, Dr. Bardéz is pounding Hope's face against the wall).

Hope tried to push away from the wall, but Bardéz gave her an knee to the small of her back, right where her right kidney would be. "I'm not through talking yet!" He growled at her, "The fact is you should be more respectful to your elders…especially those who are _stronger_ and _smarter _than you are, did you think it was clever? Did you think it was ingenious to fight somebody who's those two things I mentioned? Well guess again little lady, it wasn't clever or ingenious…it was a _mistake_!"

"You know you're right…but I just realized a mistake you made," said Hope, "Oh yeah, and what would that be?" Bardéz asked. "you were born a guy!" Hope told him, she then bent forward while bringing her left leg up. Kicking Dr. Vincent Bardéz in the crotch, he then left out a muffled whimper of pain as her collapsed to the ground kicking and holding his groin.

Bardéz tilted his head and looked at her from the corner of his right eye and said, "You're going to get it now…when I get back up it's going to be no more Mr. Nice Guy, I'm going to _kill_ you!" Hope knew she needed to get some distance between her and the twisted psycho lying on the ground, she quickly ran for the stairwell and started going up. "Hide anywhere you like bitch, I'll find you sooner or later!" Bardéz called out as he got back to his feet and chased off after her, Kayin was watching this, he wish he could help…but his whole body felt like a block of lead. Suddenly he heard footsteps coming his way, he looked to see Roland and Geeku heading his way. They stopped by him, "Where's Hope?" Roland asked, "Upstairs…better hurry though, Bardéz is after her." Roland nodded and ran up the stairs after both of them with Geeku right behind him.

Hope was on the third floor, she wasn't looking for someplace to hide…but a place that'd give her time to think out a plan when Bardéz found her, eventually she was about to turn a corner when suddenly she saw the face of Dr. Bardéz staring at her, she fell backward scared out of her mind. Bardéz looked down at her, and with his hand lit up with that same whitish blue flicker said, "Deixe a lâmpada afixar seua viga, o único imperador é o imperador de sorvete." He looked at her confused face and said, "For those who aren't Portuguese: 'Let the lamp affix its beam, the only emperor is the emperor of ice cream'."

Suddenly there came a yell from down the hallway coming toward the both of them, Bardéz turned to see Geeku running for them. Before she could attack though Bardéz ducked and monkey flipped her into a wall, where she laid on the ground motionless. Hope had backed away against a window facing a courtyard on the main floor, Bardéz turned his attention back to her and started heading towards her, a dark smile on his face. "Hey Doc," A voice called from behind him, Bardéz turned around to see Roland. One of his guns was pointed straight at him, "say hello to atonement for me." Suddenly there was a deafening report, Hope could only watch as Bardéz went flying back through the window and landed in a rose bush below.

Roland blew away the smoke coming from the barrel and helped Hope up, Hope got up and gave Roland a hug. A few tears still pouring down her bruised and tear stained face. "Let's go find your dad…perhaps he's feeling better." Roland suggested, Roland helped Geeku back to her feet and all of them went back down to the main floor.

Later that afternoon at the Tower, Hope told everybody about her encounter with Dr. Vincent Bardéz and how Roland had saved her, "Yes, I guess a thank you is in order for me…but don't think of this as the end, that was just one of them, there are six more of them out there somewhere waiting for us. I want all of us to stick together and be on our guard."

"Mrs. Ambar," said Apogeo, "Yes." she answered, Apogeo continued, "I found some information on our two men, the first one Wyatt O. Westcot III has a very mysterious history, I only found an I.V. (Intergalactic Visa) and Birth Certificate bearing his name. But the second one, Lukyan Del Röc was an Imperial prisoner during the Ancestral War…apparently he escaped with a few of his cell mates and was hardly seen or heard from again, but the most interesting tidbit is they had connections with one person in particular…an Imperial captain named Morgan Edge."

Meanwhile on another planet somewhere the lone figure of Wyatt was fireman carrying the limp deceased body of Vincent Bardéz (Author's Note: Play a tune from Halo 2 just to set the right feeling), Wyatt finally met our wolf in black and said, "Vince is dead, but he was the weak link in our chain…not like I'm going to miss him anyway."

"Oh I wouldn't say it was a complete loss Wyatt, he still has a use that will soon come into play." The wolf in black told him, "Take the body to my lab, will you…or is there something else I should know about?"

"Uh, yes Mr. Edge…I have some disturbing news, Roland Victoire is helping the Crest, and I saw Experiment #12 with them." Wyatt told Morgan Edge.

"Kayin is with _them_?!" Edge asked, sounding rather irate. Wyatt nodded, Edge walked away from Wyatt, but looked back and said, "You can go now, I need to be alone."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Double Edged Sword

Roland woke up at 4 in the morning to look at that disk he'd made, he looked it over. "_Okay Nearie and Vixy's power levels are normal for them,_" He pressed a few more keys and thought, "_Shin and Lionhawk are a bit above average…which I wouldn't doubt, now let's see Hope's…since she's a pacifist I'm going to expect her powers to be below the others_." He looked at Hopes' power reading and stared with his mouth agape, "No bloody way!" He whispered to himself, he took out the disk and stared at it for a bit. Then he looked at his watch, "_Can't dwell on this now, have to get ready…the teacher can't be late_."

Roland waited patiently until 5:15…when the kids started to arrive again, Roland looked at all of them with the look of a drill sergeant looking upon new recruits. "I hope you all got to training with your parents…because for the next five weeks, your hopes of defeating the Psychics belong to _me_!" Roland said to them, "The first six days of this week will be the beginners training, at the end of the week I'll set up a certain test to see how much you improved, after that…the next week will be the intermediate course, and so on and so forth. My exercise regiment for you will test you physically, and the tests will sometimes challenge you mentally. I've printed it out here for all of you." He handed them a sheet of paper, each of them looked at the print on the other side. This is what it said:

BEGINNERS EXERCISE REGIMENT:

30 push-ups

10 sit-ups

30 min. of steam meditation (meditation in the steam of the hot springs)

A 3 mile run beginning at the Tower and ending at the Tower

Note: During these exercises you'll be wearing 3 pound wrist and ankle weights.

Shin looked at Roland and asked, "Three pounds…I could lift that weight in my sleep, that's not beginner weight…that's wuse weight, why are you starting off with weak weights like that?"

Roland took off his trench coat, folded it neatly and asked, "Hold this for me, would you?" Shin held out his arms and Roland placed the coat into them, no sooner had he removed his grip from below had Shin fell backward with the coat on top of him. "What the heck…uh, a little help here this thing is heavy…errr, really heavy. Grrrrr…what is this thing made of, lead?"

"Roland crouched down so his eyes and Shin's were staring right at each other, "Lead weights to be precise…that's about 170 pounds of lead placed in pockets all over that jacket, it took me four weeks of training…the same training I'm putting all of you through, to wear that without being encumber lanced by its weight, so don't question my methods……do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." Shin said, Roland then took the coat from Shin and put it back on, Shin got up gasping for breath. "Now that that's over," Roland continued, "Let's put on the weights and get under way shall we?"

And that's how it started, the push-ups, sit-ups, and meditation were the only bearable parts…but the running had to be the hardest of all, all the way through the course Roland would be on a bicycle yelling things into a bull horn like 'is this the best you can give me? Pump those legs for what they're worth!' or 'Come on, are you going to let _me_ beat _you_ back to the Tower?'

When they all got to the front door they looked like they were all half dead, "Oh god my poor legs." Shin moaned, "I'm hurting in places that don't exist." Groaned Vixy, Lionhawk looked at them and said, "Don't talk about hurt, I'm in pain enough already."

Roland looked at all of them and said, "Okay…you all deserve a break for breakfast, you have an hour and a half, then it's right back to training!"

During Breakfast Nearie sat down next to Shin and Vixy and said, "There's something strange about Roland."

"Oh and you realize this _NOW!_" Shin snapped, Nearie shook her head, "Not in the physical sense Shin, but the mental…I've been reading his mind, I won't reveal what he's been thinking about recently…but on the bigger picture, it's almost as if part of it's asleep."

As soon as they were finished with breakfast Roland pointed at his watch and said, "Time to get back to work, _ladies_!" And that's how the rest of the day went, the training followed by an hour and a half break. During one of the runs Shin tossed his lunch back up, by the end of the day Roland looked at all of them. Shin, Vixy, and Nearie were down on all fours catching their breath. Hope was flat on her back groaning, while Lionhawk had his body laid out like it was ready for burial. "Okay…that's it for today, you can all do your own thing. But I want you in bed by 10:30…don't want you staying up too late."

"_Who does he think he is…our parents?_" Vixy thought to herself. "But I promise you this…by the end of the week I'll have a surprise for you all, not much…but I'm sure you'll like it."

That night Roland managed to drift off to sleep…but at Midnight he woke up again, only they weren't his eyes anymore. "_Where the bloody hell am I?_" he thought to himself, he then stuck to walking the halls, stopping outside the door that lead into Kate and Bengala's room. He felt something behind that door, something white, clean, and nice…boy did he hate it. He walked in and saw the two of them sleeping, he sensed the feeling coming from the lady…he held one of Roland's guns and pointed straight at her, pulled the hammer back to full cock, and squeezed the trigger. '_CLICK!_' the hammer went, but no report…he saw the empty cartilage fall to the ground, it was a blank. He pulled the hammer back again and again, '_Click, click, click!_' all blanks. "DAMN IT!" Roland cried out.

Kate woke up and saw Roland standing across the room, "Roland? What in the name of—?" She started to ask, slowly getting out of bed. Roland saw she was awake and quickly closed the gap between them, ripping her from the bed and throwing her against the wall with blinding speed. "Thought you and your crew could take me prisoner…huh, sheila…thought you could hold me here against me will and do what-not to me, well guess again. I'm a different kind of animal."

Bengala woke up and saw what was happening to the right of him, he sprang up and said, "Roland…what are you doing!?" He asked in shock, Roland backed away and said, "Don't come a meter closer bloke…or I snap your little witch of a leader's neck like a chicken." Bengala took a step forward, but Roland held on tight to Kate and waved his finger at him saying, "No, no, no…I wouldn't go any farther than that if I was you bloke, wouldn't want the little witch of a missus to die now would we?"

Bengala looked frustrated at Roland, there was something different about him…but what? Suddenly the door burst open and Minos, Howl, and Kayin burst through, slamming Roland against the wall and putting their weight against him. Bengala looked at them, "We saw and heard everything…looks like you can't judge a book by it's cover after all." Growled Minos, Roland was writhing and twisting…his face literally looked like a skull, "Unhand me you overgrown brutes…unhand me _RIGHT NOW!_ Or you'll soon face my wrath…you'll all face the wrath of Roland Noir!" That's pretty much what he kept saying to the point where they put him in his bed and put restraints on him so his couldn't get away. "So what do you make of it?" Pulsar asked, looking at Roland as he jerked around in that bed, trying to get out of the binds that held him. "I don't know…I mean he was such a nice person, why would he bring it upon himself to shoot one of us?" Carmesi asked in reply. "Yesterday's sheep…tomorrows' wolf I'm guessing." Howl suggested, Grace shook her head, "I don't believe that…but it feels as if something about him has changed."

"The other part of him is awake," a voice replied from behind them, they all turned to see Nearie leaning against the doorway. "Nearie…go back to sleep." Ambar told her, "Mom…I'm trying to give you my insight on this, I've been reading Roland's mind for the last few days. I found something really old about it, one part of it was awake…the other part was in slumber land," She looked at Roland…she didn't know if he could see them or not, but it looked as if he was staring straight at her. "but now that's reversed…the other part is awake, and not all too happy about where it's other half has brought it."

"So I was right…" Ambar whispered to herself, "What did you say?" Kayin asked. Ambar took a deep breath and said, "I made a diagnosis of what Roland had when he told us about his memory blanks…at first I thought I was being a little quick about it, but seeing this now……I realize I was right and should've said something sooner."

"Well what is it then, what's wrong with Roland?" Carmesi asked, Ambar looked at Roland again, "He has schizophrenia, a good deal of it to…it's a psychotic disorder where the person in question has another personality opposite of his or her own."

"So we're seeing that other side of that personality?" Kate asked, Ambar nodded.

"You think these lousy restraints will hold me for long? HA, think again…as soon as I'm out of these I'll come after the guys that put me on here and cut off their genitals, but heck…maybe I won't find them, maybe they'll just be too small to see!" This same type of slurs lasted for about 10 minutes.

"You guys go to bed," Pulsar suggested, "I'll watch over this guy."

Kayin looked at Roland, "So he has two personalities?" he asked, Nearie nodded, "And neither one realizes they have one another."

"We may need to make Roland…_our_ Roland realize what he has, after all we may need both of them in the future." Kayin told her, Nearie nodded. "And speaking of going to bed…you should be on your way there."

Meanwhile, Roland Noir felt weak…then he saw it before his eyes, the shadow of the bad man…the really, really, really bad man. But maybe he wasn't so bad…I mean he'd brought _him_ into this world, but suddenly he felt these words rip right out of his mouth, "YOU SON OF A WHORE, YOU KILLED MY FATHER! I OUTTA CUT YOU FROM WHERE YOUR UNION MEETS YOUR SOUTH PACIFIC YOU…" Then he drifted off to sleep and Roland Victoire came back to reality, he looked and saw that the faint rays of morning were seeping through the window…and from that light he saw he was restrained to a bed. "Uh…hello? Is anybody here? I know something's up because I was in my bed last night."

Pulsar jerked awake and looked to see Roland, _their _Roland, was awake. "Well time to talk with the man in question." Pulsar muttered to himself.

Roland watched as Pulsar entered the door and sat next to him, "Oh Pulsar…may I asked what the meaning of this is, I mean one minute I'm in my bed the next I'm here."

"Well considering the night you had I wouldn't be playing dumb Roland Noir." Pulsar said, Roland looked at him confused, "What? That's not my name…my name is Roland Victoire, not Noir. You're obviously mistaking me for someone else."

Pulsar looked in Roland's eyes for a moment and saw no malice in them other than to be released, Pulsar undid the binds and followed Roland back to his room.

When Roland heard Pulsar walk away he took out a bunch of papers and laid them out in front of him, he looked at the designs on each one of them. "_Well they're all here…now that just leaves the making of them, didn't lose that much time so I'll still be able to make them……oh CRUD! Look at the time!_"

Roland made it to the roof to see the kids all waiting for him, and then the second day of training was done he saw them all collapse from exhaustion, Roland shook his head and said, "No one said this was going to easy guys…you all agreed to do this, but I'm going to be working on my surprise for you guys tonight…don't be surprised if you hear anything coming from the roof."

That night Vixy stepped out onto the balcony from her room, from the roof she could hear a faint '_tom-tap, tom-tom, tap-tom, tom-tap, tom-tom_' noise. The sound of a hammer against metal, "_What is he working on up there?_" Vixy wondered to herself. Then she looked at the time, best get to bed. The next morning started the same for them and ended at early evening. Ambar showed up with a small bag, Roland looked in it and thanked her for getting him what he needed.

That night Vixy snuck out of her room to see what Roland was working on, she wasn't surprised to see Lionhawk out as well. "So you're wanting to see what he's up to up there as well?" She asked him, Lionhawk tried to thinking of a viable excuse…but then said, "Yeah…I mean I heard the sound that bag made, there were jewels in that bag Ambar handed him. I just want to find out what they're for."

Slowly both of them made there way to the roof, soon as they slipped through the door a faint scent of burning charcoal hit there nostrils. They rounded the corner to see Roland working with what appeared to be a Blast Furnace, he had a heavy pair of work gloves on and a pair of tongs in his right hand. He took the tongs and stuck them into the furnace…pulling out a piece of glowing red metal, he then walked over to an anvil, picked up a hammer and started pounding at it '_tom-tom, tap-tom, tom-tom, tom-tap, tap-tom, tom-tom_'.

They were about to leave when Lionhawk slipped and fell to the ground, that was enough for Roland to turn in their direction and see them. "What are you two doing up?" he asked sternly…he then told them to go back to bed and be ready for next morning's training.

By the end of the week Roland looked at them and said, "Now as I hope you recall I said that by the end of the first week of training I'd have a gift for all of you," Roland then walked over, went behind the blast furnace and brought out a small bundle of packages. He laid them down, "take only the one with your name on it, I think you'll be surprised."

One by one the kids stepped up and took the package with their name on it, inside was a short sword version of one of their parents weapons. For Shin, a short sword version of Half-Moon, Nearie a shorter version of her mom's lance, Lionhawk seemed rather intrigued on how Roland had made a short sword version of Reiken so easily, Vixy looked at the short sword versions of the Twin Slayers, and for Hope…a short sword version of Angel.

While they were handling their new weapons to see how they felt, Roland got the scanner set up and had them give him another energy reading. When that was done Roland dismissed them, he needed to look at the disk…he had to know if what he was expecting was right, if so…he'd ask Kayin about his years before meeting Grace, and vice versa for Grace, if that didn't reveal anything…then he was up mystery creek without an oar.

Roland looked at the new reading and made a chart of it:

**Name**

**Starting Power Level**

**After Week 1**

**After Week 2**

**After Week 3**

**After Week 4**

**After Week 5**

Shin

447

494

Lionhawk

470

510

Nearie

144

218

Vixy

170

244

Hope

4700 for 4 sec. then down to 74

4700 for 7 sec. then down to 91

"_That settles it…I have to talk to Kayin_." Roland thought to himself, he managed to find Kayin and showed him the chart. "This can't be my daughters' energy reading…as you called it." was Kayin's initial response, Roland gave a solemn nod, "That was my belief at first…but I checked the scanning equipment, it was working at 275 efficiency…it didn't make a mistake, it _couldn't_…which is why I have to ask you and your wife about your past, it may help me deduct a more solid conclusion."

When Roland got both Kayin's and Grace's background stories…he ran them through his mind, but a conclusion…he could find not. "_Hope Ravenhurst…a mystery barricaded by a mystery shrouded in an enigma_," as he walked by Hope's room, faintly able to here the sweet voice singing behind it. A faint smile crossed Roland face, "_yet I believe she'll be the one _true_ bit of faith this universe will need._"

Meanwhile at a alley tavern two black cloaked figures met, they were later met by are dear wolf in black. "So what's the game plan Mr. Edge?" one of the figures asked.

"Well Taylor…looks like you'll be next up to bat, I've even picked a good day and event for you," Mr. Edge said, pulling a concert poster and laying it out in front of them. "A lot of Prisms' youth will be there…and if Victoire isn't as overbearing as I think he is…the children of the Crest will be there too."

"And where do I come in?" the second cloaked figure asked, Edge looked at him and said, "You'll offer to walk them home Mr. Westcot…little will they realize that you're leading them right into a trap, then the sins of the parents will be taken out on their children."


End file.
